Staff Reports
Suicide is a year-round problem, but extra attention is paid to it in September during Suicide Prevention Month.
There were 3,446 suicide deaths in Florida in 2022, putting the Sunshine State’s death rate (14.1 per 100,000 people) toward the bottom nationwide.
It’s the second-leading cause of death for people ages 10-34, the fourth for those 34-54 and the fifth among people 45-54.
Across the U.S., more than 49,000 people died by suicide in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the equivalent of one death every 11 minutes.
But that statistic only captures part of the picture as millions more planned to commit suicide.
Florida Association of Managing Entities (FAME) CEO Natalie Kelly said nearly 4 million Americans made plans to die by suicide. Close to 2 million attempted suicide in 2022. Department of Health data shows that another 7,477 people were hospitalized for nonfatal, self-inflicted injuries, according to the Florida Department of Health.
“Connecting individuals experiencing a mental health crisis with behavioral health services saves lives,” Kelly said in a statement.
Florida Behavioral Health Association (FBHA) President and CEO Melanie Brown-Woofter said Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis have been leading advocates for mental health improvements and increasing spending for mental health in the state.
The Legislature has been willing to spend more toward the effort, she said, describing funding hikes in recent years as “unprecedented.”
“There was $126 million in recurring funding to mental health and substance use services. We are seeing, this past year, $11.5 million in recurring funding for mobile response teams, which are having a huge impact in terms of diverting crisis admissions and crises like suicide,” she said.
“We are seeing $50 million that was put into the system to address the Baker Act and Marchman Act, which are involuntary admissions of those with a mental health crisis or a substance use crisis.”
Those funds are on top of federal grants, opioid settlement dollars and added emphases on mental health and substance abuse in the new Medicaid managed care contracts.
Moreover, Brown-Woofter noted that there has been an uptick in phone calls to the 988 Lifeline, which provides free 24-hour support for people in distress. Florida has 13 lifeline call centers. Citing state Department of Children and Family Services data, Brown Woofter said there were 2,064 calls about a suicide attempt in progress made to the line between October 2022 and May 2024. In each instance, lifeline call center workers succeeded in keeping the person from taking their life.
In addition to a one-month prevention campaign, Sept. 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day. It’s a time to remember those affected by suicide, raise awareness and focus efforts on directing treatment to those who need it most.
While FAME and FBHA work year-round to eradicate suicide, efforts are amplified in September.
“We do a lot of education at the middle and high school level, to encourage students, if they talk to another student who’s having problems, to refer them to an adult, to a safe adult,” Brown-Woofter said.
“And (it’s) the same thing with adults in the community, the grandmothers out there or friends out there (whose) sleeping patterns have changed or maybe they seem depressed. Maybe they aren’t talking about the future like they used to do. It’s just the small things like that that would lead you to at least have a conversation and then make a referral.”
FAME works with partners in faith-based and veteran communities to connect people with life-saving behavioral health services.
Mobile Response Teams dispatch counselors to deescalate situations. Hospital bridge programs coordinate services after a person who attempted suicide is stabilized in a facility’s emergency department. School mental health services work to identify at-risk youths.
At large, FAME collaborates with providers that deliver services to more than 300,000 of Florida’s most vulnerable residents, from children and expectant mothers to veterans and the chronically homeless.
The system also provides nearly 1.7 million Floridians with preventative services and reaches hundreds of thousands more through indirect preventative services, including education initiatives.
If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to a mental health professional or contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting 988 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
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Jesse Scheckner and Christine Sexton of Florida Politics contributed to this report.
